“Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise,” declares the Psalmist. “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” The joy of worship has been a passion of the human heart since time immemorial. And while church buildings have come a long way since the tabernacle erected by the Israelites in the desert, the design of today’s churches, like that of the original tabernacle, is replete with meaning. From the architecture to the imagery on the walls, from the musical choices to the incense, churches contain significance in each of their parts.

Yet, as William Whyte explains in Unlocking the Church: The Lost Secrets of Victorian Sacred Space, starting with the Reformation, church design in much of Great Britain downplayed symbolism and decoration in favor of plainness—and not only in newly built churches: Some long-established churches were changed in ways that made them plainer. The point of attending church services was at least as much to hear and learn about God’s word as it was to perform rituals symbolic and sacramental, so the general idea behind the plainness movement was to create an environment suitable for preaching and attentive listening. There was little to nothing to look at: Explicit symbolism was removed from interior walls, which were often whitewashed.